"Reasoning is no use; facts that contradict personal prejudices can simply be disbelieved — indeed, the fool can counter by criticizing them, and if they are undeniable, they can be just pushed aside as trivial exceptions."
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
“Believe in truth. To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power, because there is no basis upon which to do so. If nothing is true, then all is spectacle. The biggest wallet pays for the most blinding lights. Post-truth is pre-fascism."
Timothy Snyder
“Religion used to be the opium of the people. But now we are witnessing a transformation: a true opium of the people is the belief in nothingness after death, the huge solace, the huge comfort of thinking that for our betrayals, our greed, our cowardice, our murders, that we are not going to be judged.”
Czeslaw Milosz, The Discreet Charm of Nihilism
"Foolishness has a knack of getting its way; as we should see if we were not always so much wrapped up in ourselves. In this respect our townsfolk were like everybody else, wrapped up in themselves; they did not believe in plagues."
Albert Camus
Stocks dropped like a rock overnight as word of a new, virulent variation of the coronavirus came out of South Africa. It has already spread abroad.
The Dollar dropped back to the 96 handle, expelling a great deal of its recent speculative excess.
The VIX rocketed higher.
Gold rallied hard overnight, but was slowly whittled down in the quiet New York trading to unchanged.
When the time comes gold will move like a flood, sweeping all manipulation aside.
Silver was lower, as it tends to follow equities a little more closely in times of stress.
There will be a Non-Farm Payrolls report next week.
It is a little surprising how strong the current of delusion is running these days.
People lie to themselves, and believe in the lies of swindlers and swine, almost routinely.
And to quiet their consciences they try to aggressively block out all things contrary to their delusions.
God and nature do not care that you do not care. And they will not be silenced.
But when things come to their resolution, beware of falling true believers, caught up in their vain gods of pride, and graven images of fear, hate, and malign indifference.
God's mills grind slowly, but exceedingly fine. Always.
Have a pleasant weekend.